MicroMan was recently announced by Warsaw-based Glob Games Studio as a rather unique tiny survival-adventure with a large focus on being tiny.
Following an unfortunate accident, a laboratory worker shrinks down to the size of an insect. From there, he must do everything possible to regain his normal size. However, that will be easier said than done. Taking inspiration from other tales such as the classic Gulliver’s Travels, the tiny protagonist must somehow survive against a bizarre world that can only be seen from his miniature eyes.
Speaking with SegmentNext in a recent interview, vice president Karol Marcinkowski discussed how MicroMan will have an original approach to the same Ant-Man-style adventures with an emphasis on storytelling and temporary size changes like in Alice’s Wonderland that completely change the environment.
MicroMan will release first on PC in the second half of 2021, after which it will be turn of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The developer is currently uncertain if the game will be ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and for the time being, focus remains on next-generation consoles as well as Nintendo Switch.
Looking at the short trailer, the game is obviously inspired by the entertainment products like Ant-Man, right? However, you mentioned that it will still be a unique experience, how?
We really believe that our style of narrative will unfold as an original approach to storytelling. One of the key elements of our storytelling tools will definitely be reactive voiceover and we’re putting a lot of work into writing so it can enhance every single action that the player will trigger along his way through our protagonist’s story. From the gameplay perspective we’re preparing a lot of exciting enhancements like possibility to change character’s size depending on the need and letting the player choose his own approach on every obstacle.
How far are you guys into the development of the game?
We’re currently focusing on outlining a solid story, creating tons of new concept art and 3D assets. After we released the first trailer for the game we realised we need to go back and make some groundbreaking design changes. Our developers are working on a stable build of first levels of the game.
How long the single-player story is going to be? How does the progression/reward system work in the game?
We’re currently aiming for 8 hours of the standard storyline and we’re writing the script for some extra side quests, puzzles and activities that will keep players motivated to go back and explore pieces of content that they left while following the story.
Besides the obvious – following the storyline we’re adding treasure system with gameplay-enhancing rewards, achievements and some hidden easter eggs.
Have you guys received the devkits for the console? Would you be developing the next-gen ports first or the current gen ports?
We’re releasing the game on PC first, then we’re moving into consoles. We’re not sure we’ll be porting the game to the previous gens of PS and Xbox. For now, all we know is that we really want to see our game on Switch and new gen consoles.
How many people are working on the game? Are we going to get an open world or the gameplay will be linear?
We currently have a dedicated team of 5 people and a small group of trusted freelance contractors that are helping with specific development parts of the development.
What resolution and FPS are you guys targeting for the next-gen consoles?
For now, all I can say it’ll definitely run at 60FPS in 4k.
About the SSD in next-gen consoles; How effective do you guys think are they going to be? Will they be able to do zero load times?
Well, we do experience loading time on PCs with NVME solid state drives. Let’s just hope that optimisation and compression will do the trick and we’ll stop wasting time looking at progress bars.
In the trailer, we have seen the protagonist riding a butterfly and Skateboard, what else players can expect to ride in the game?
Great question! We’re really sensitive on the topic of riding/flying mechanics and we’ll put extreme attention to it. Once we’re satisfied with it, you’ll definitely see some sneak peaks of our character riding a filthy rat in sewers and gliding through the air on bird’s back.
Sony recently revealed its PS5 controller Dualsense. What are your thoughts on it? How would your game benefit from any of the new controller features?
To be honest, we’re all fans of the current Xbox One controller so we’re pretty excited that Dualsense looks a little bit a like it. On the other side as avid Nintendo fans we’d love to implement the touchpad into our gameplay, I think it was always underutilized.
Why is MicroMan coming to PC first and not the consoles? Any specific reasons?
We don’t have much experience with publishing games on consoles, we’re primarily PC gamers and that’s what we know best and how we design our games. Brininging more console-oriented people into our team is on our to-do list and we’ll see how it will change our feelings on the next productions.
I see that you are releasing the game on Steam. Wasn’t Epic Games an option since they are offering more money to the developers, especially for the exclusivity?
We discussed it thoroughly and we decided that we want to reach the biggest audience possible which, for indie games is currently on Steam.
Apart from MicroMan, any other games you are aiming to bring on PS5 and Series X?
It’s under discussion.
As a small developer/publisher, how do you think the new consoles will affect the scene of Indie gaming? Any steps you would want the big companies to take to improve Indie gaming scene?
Publishing a game on PS or Xbox Stores is way more complicated, more expensive and time consuming than doing it on Steam or Switch. We hope that Sony and Microsoft will improve this process so we’ll be able to see more and more experimental and innovative indie games on their consoles.
Again, about PS5 and Series X. There is a power difference between PS5 and Xbox Series X. A lot of developers have weighed in about that. Some say that it’s a major difference while others have claimed that it’s negligible. What’s your take on the matter?
We think of MicroMan as a fun, story-driven adventure game that focuses on delivering players a beautiful adventure that they can be immersed in. 8K super realistic graphics on next gen consoles is something that we’ll think about later.
